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A former North Carolina probation officer was sentenced on Thursday, April 25, 2013, in U.S. District Court to serve 17 months in prison for extortion and drug trafficking offenses involving persons under his supervision, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western
District of North Carolina. James David Franklin, 46, of Lenoir, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release following his prison term. According to court documents and court proceedings, from April 2001 through July 2010, Franklin, who was employed as a Surveillance Officer by the North Carolina Department of Corrections, supervised probationers on intensive supervision in Burke and Caldwell Counties. Court records indicate that from in or about July 2009 to in or about July 2010, Franklin used his position on multiple occasions to extort drugs from an individual who had been under Franklin’s supervision, including methamphetamine and hydrocodone. Court records show that Franklin would arrange to retrieve the narcotics from the specific probationer’s driveway in exchange for cash. Law enforcement officers were alerted to Franklin’s conduct when the probationer complained to his federal probation officer. According to court records, Franklin was apprehended by law enforcement officers when he went to the probationer’s house to deliver the hydrocodone pills in exchange for $375 in cash. In December 2011, Franklin pleaded guilty to one count of extortion under color of official right and one count of possession with intent to distribute hydrocodone. Franklin has been in custody since April 2011. He will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. The investigation was handled by the FBI and SBI.